Adult-FanFiction.org : Gundam, Beyblade, DBZ, FMA

Running	By : happynekojpn Category: Beyblade > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2181 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or its characters. They are the property of their respective copyright holders. No profit is being made from this story

Chapter List
- 1-Running
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 1
- 2
Running

A/N: Okay, so I pretty much QUIT writing fanfiction about 4 or 5 years ago. I near enough gave up interest in my fandoms after the summer of 2008. I kept hold of a couple of them, but they stayed on the back burner. I lost the drive to write anything, which was sad but still a fact of life. Now, all this time later, I'm back at my laptop and writing again. A different laptop than what I used to write the last fic I wrote, and I'm back in Japan, the country that founded and faded my fandoms. But inspiration comes from unexpected places, and mine came from a picture by one of my favourite artists from one of my fandoms that I found on dA. All of her art is amazing, though, but one particular picture got me thinking, so here I am again. I doubt she'll ever see this, read this or even like it, but Glay, if you do, it's for you.

Warnings: Language, sexual content (explicit in later chapters), violence and all that.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. It is owned by its respective copyright holders. No profits are being made from this, or else I would totally not be a teacher right now...

One

I took a quick glimpse into the second Interrogation Room of the precinct and found myself doing a double-take. The young man in the room was definitely familiar; two-tone dark grey hair, the darkest shade almost black, alabaster skin and soft lilac-tinted eyes. Their gaze was, however, never soft, in all the time I had seen it in the stadium or on TV screens. He was taller than when I'd last seen him as a teenager and he still had the same muscle tone and definition. His gaze was still cold and sharp, as it had always been. But this was different. Dried blood dirtied the white t-shirt he wore under his heavy, black leather jacket, both of which were littered with gashes and holes that were recently made, of that much I knew. The black cargo pants he wore were sliced open at one knee, exposing broken and bruised skin that he had refused to have treated prior to being brought here. More holes and cuts were dotted throughout the fabric, opening up more patches of damaged skin and laying bare angry wounds that caused me to flinch inside a little. His face, which was once adorned with blue face paint in his youth, was now without, but his lip was split and dried blood stained the right side of his face, originating from an especially angry-looking gash just above his temple. He looked uncomfortable, tense and miles away.

This young man was Kai Hiwatari. But not as I had last seen him, when I took my oldest son to the BEGA showdown in the city over eight years ago.

“We're questioning him?” I queried my colleague, jabbing my thumb to the window, indicating to the young former Beyblader.

“That's right,” my colleague, James Donnelly, responded, adjusting the files in his hands as he looked into the Interrogation Room. “Looks like a thug now, doesn't he?”

“But he's not here for questioning,” I countered. “He's here to give a statement. As a victim.”

“For real, huh?” Donnelly looked moderately surprised by my response, shrugging it off lightly. “I guess, yeah. But dressing like that, he looks more like he should be in lock-up. How old is he, anyway? 25? 27?”

“He'll be 24 this summer,” I replied, as I looked his file over. So much time had elapsed since he had last been in the public attention, and just as much had happened, if his file was anything to go by. It gave me a moment to pause on the surprises that life can have in store for you and how you can never be fully prepared for them. “From what the report says, he was attacked. I have the exact details here. I am to question him on the nature of the attack, and also probably why he refused medical attention.”

“He looks rough as fuck,” Donnelly noted aloud. “He should have at least been looked at by a doctor. He got the shit kicked out of him.”

“Question is will he talk...?” I sighed, knowing Kai to not exactly be the most talkative of people, nor the most cooperative. It gave me cause for concern, especially when relating to catching the ones who did this to him. He seemed, though, as if he would be far too proud to admit that he had been ambushed and attacked out of nowhere. Had it even been out of nowhere. I longed to find out, but I was already mentally prepared for never knowing.

“Good luck with that, Warren,” Donnelly patted my shoulder, a look of sympathy on his face before moving on to continue with his work. The soft sound of phones ringing throughout the police department could be heard as I straightened myself, dusting creases from my shirt and pants and straightening my tie, before entering the small Interrogation Room to speak with the former Beyblader.

The look he gave me as I entered was one of pure venom, but behind it I could see flickers of discomfort and pain. He wasn't happy about being here at all, that much was obvious, and I tried not to show my nerves as I swallowed back and approached the table, setting my file down in front of the only other chair at the table.

“Mr Hiwatari, I'm Detective Martin Warren with the Bay City Police,” I began, mentally willing myself to keep my tone calm. “I've brought you here to question you regarding the incident that occurred at 12:30 this afternoon.” His expression darkened further, his eyes giving me the impression that yes, he knew well enough why he was here and he saw no reason for me to regurgitate the information for the sake of protocol. I cleared my throat and took my seat. “This conversation will be recorded to be used as evidence at a later time. Is this alright?” He looked away, his shoulders shrugging lightly under his jacket, and said nothing. I took that as a positive. I nodded and continued. “Your honesty is appreciated in this instance, as this recording will most likely be used as evidence in court and its validity as a statement will be brought into question if you lie.”

“Hmph,” the young man before me merely grunted, like he was almost making fun of me, as a small smirk seemed to tug at the corners of his lips. I took in a deep breath and exhaled as I pressed the Record button on the recording unit on the table.

“Friday, April 6^th 2012,” I began, keeping my voice clear for the recording. “The time is 4:37pm. Detective Martin Warren interviewing Mr Kai Hiwatari.” I turned my attention to the much-changed young man before me. “Can you confirm that your name is Kai Hiwatari?”

“Yes,” he responded after a short moment of silence, though his tone conveyed every edge of his annoyance. I adjusted myself. This wasn't going to be easy.

“Can you confirm that you were born in Moscow, Russia on August 2^nd 1988?” I asked again, feeling the tension in the room thicken and the younger man's temper flare. It was like a fire burning behind his eyes.

“Yes,” he gritted out. “Any other mundane questions you wish to bore me with?” I could feel the skin of my neck, right at the line of my collar, starting to dampen under his intense gaze, but I endeavoured to not let it show on my face. For goodness' sake; I'm 39, I shouldn't be openly broadcasting such nervous emotions, especially as a detective.

“Mr Hiwatari,” I began, opening up the file in front of me. “Can you please explain to me, in detail, the events leading up to the incident in question that occurred earlier today.” He looked away from me, leaning back in the chair, arms folded loosely and uncomfortably across his chest, obviously intent on not answering me. I tried a different angle. “Can you please give me some identifying markers of your attackers so that we may locate them?” Still, nothing. Now he just looked bored and disinterested. I wasn't about to give up. “Can you tell me anything about the attack?” This time, he looked at me, but the look was one of annoyance. This was all, obviously, an inconvenience to him. I let out an exasperated sigh.

“Alright, Kai,” I began, my elbows resting on the table top, putting my face in my hands for a few moments to collect myself, before looking up at him. “It's obvious to anyone from fifty miles around that you took a kicking. You don't have to sit there and be quiet to protect them.” He looked riled by that remark, and it looked for a moment as if he would say something, but he bit his tongue and held his silence. This was growing more and more troublesome by the minute. “Look, until I have some questions answered from you related to this attack, you have to stay here. I'm sorry, but I need some information from you... Anything...” Out of desperation, I started flipping through the file in front of me. One name kept popping up over and over throughout his records. “Can you tell me more about your relationship with Tyson Granger?”

His eyes widened and his whole body tensed noticeably. I'd hit a soft spot.

“What about him?” the young man finally spoke, though I could tell that he was still speaking through gritted teeth, and my touching on the subject of his former team-mate had obviously set something off inside him. I couldn't tell whether he was being defensive or whether it was revulsion he was speaking from.

“He features prominently in your life,” I responded, trying to keep my cool. “I'm wondering if perhaps his presence in your life may have a connection to what happened today?”

“Ridiculous!” he scoffed, sounding agitated. “How can you come to such a weak conclusion? Is this some futile attempt to find out more of the nature of my connection to him?”

“Not entirely,” I countered. “He was the one that called the emergency services after you were hurt. It makes me wonder why he was in the area, that's all.” I saw the young man before me become even more tense, watching as he let out a slow, controlled breath, whether as a method of pain control or in an effort to calm his boiling temper I couldn't say. “You've been friends since you were teenagers. Was he at all a part of what happened today?”

“Of course not!” he snapped, jolting forward a little. “What would that idiot have to do with any of this?!” I was silent for a few moments more, as I noticed his reaction die quickly on his features and be replaced with an expression of... embarrassment? He looked at me as if he had just revealed something that he should have kept secret and he sank back into the chair, going quiet. My own expression softened. This wasn't just someone to get answers out of to do my job; this was someone who had been through something, that perhaps spanned out before this incident ever occurred, that needed to be dealt with before the matter at hand could even be broached. Perhaps this was none of my business, well yes, it was none of my business, but it was my job to seek the truth and see justice done for all, so I would just have to approach it at a different angle that normal this time around.

“Mr Hiwatari... Kai...” I continued, my tone softer. “Anything will help at this point... Even unrelated to this... Your friends must still mean a great deal to you, if your file is anything to go by... Tell me about them. And about Tyson.”

~~++~~

I was fourteen when I first met him. He was still only twelve, but I remember his birthday coming shortly after our meeting. In November. Just after we met Max and Ray for the first time. Maybe that was what you could call the foundation of our team, the Bladebreakers. From there on out, whether we fought side by side or face to face, we were always a team. No matter how we tried to move away from that first bond, we never could. No matter how I fought it, and I fought it vehemently, I was pulled back every time. I don't know whether I just let it happen or not, but I don't honestly remember. I've been a part of that godforsaken team for so long that I've forgotten.

Maybe, now I look at it, it was all a little comforting, which is something I'm not proud to admit to.

But the truth of this, of all of this, started when I was sixteen. After the Justice 5 Tournament was fought and won, while the foundation of the BBA was being reformed, I was blade-to-blade again with my greatest rival, and perhaps the only man that I could call “friend”:

Tyson Granger.

Just battling against him gave me a feeling I couldn't get doing anything else, not even Beyblading against any other opponent. It was such a buzz, such a high, such a rush of so many things. There was nowhere else I'd rather be and nothing else I'd rather be doing.

And nothing is harder than trying to leave. On more levels than just one.

~~+++~~

“Where are you gonna go now?” the baseball cap-wearing bluenette queried as he watched his friend turn his back to him, their battle fought and tied, though it had been everything that their last battle against each other had been. Honestly, Tyson had been shocked that Kai was in the physical condition to battle so soon after his battle in the Justice 5 tournament. Kai had put so much, maybe too much, on the line for the victory and Tyson had been concerned for some time as to whether or not he would survive it, but as a phoenix will rise from its ashes, Kai rose again as well. In that respect, he was truly unbeatable.

“Does it matter?” Kai responded shortly, looking over his shoulder at Tyson, his expression neutral as always. He gave nothing away.

“Of course it matters,” Tyson responded, trying not to sound like he was too affronted by the question, yet managing to fail at it. “Well, uh, I mean, it would be great if you could stick around longer before you do your grand disappearing act, Houdini!” Kai couldn't but turn to look at his younger friend at his remark, his expression briefly flickering to incredulous before resetting to the usual, neutral, impassive mask that he wore daily. It was so routine that it was like a woman's beauty routine to put it on. It worked like make up as well; it covered up a lot of cracks on the surface. Tyson afforded his former captain a grin. “Don't look like that! You know you have a habit of just disappearing into the night for no reason, and with no goodbye! I'd really rather we did this the old school way. You know, with an actual farewell and all that...”

“Well, goodbye, then,” Kai replied flatly, turning his back to his former team mate once more and starting away across the grass.

“Hey hey hey!” Tyson cried out, extending an arm and running after Kai. “I didn't mean it like that! I meant like we have a proper sending off! Say goodbye to everyone! Come on, you gotta owe us that by now!” The bluenette reached out and took hold of Kai's arm, holding pale exposed skin in an attempt to slow and stop his friend from leaving. Kai looked over at Tyson and felt his stomach knot tightly. The bright smile on his face, the light that seemed to dance in his eyes, beckoning and playful, imploring him to comply for just a little longer. The knot wound itself tighter.

I have to get out of here...

This feeling was getting too much for Kai to take. One minute it was a knot of tension, then it would feel like butterflies, making his head feel light and his vision hazy. Sometimes it even felt like he was going to be physically sick. At first, he had considered consulting someone about it, which was a rare admission to make even to himself, but he soon started to realise that Tyson was the instigation of all of these strange new feelings, and he started to wonder if maybe being away from Tyson would make the feelings go away. Surely dealing with them would be easier if the source of them was nowhere in sight.

“Kai!” Tyson pleaded once more. “I'll get real freaky on you if you don't stay!”

“Don't,” Kai groaned, his tone hinting at the distaste he was only barely managing to conceal. The older blader closed his eyes and exhaled heavily. Nothing ever seemed to be straight-forward or easy around Tyson, surely the last couple of years should have instilled that fact deep into his consciousness. The bluenette grinned as if the battle were won, causing the holder of Dranzer's eyes to flare a little in annoyance.

“You need to stop running away because you're scared you'll start liking us too much, Kai,” Tyson spoke up, his tone of voice unusually level, suggesting that this wasn't one of his many jibes or jabs at Kai's less-than-welcoming personality. It took Kai aback for a few moments to have the younger one suddenly come over so serious out of nowhere, but that feeling was quickly replaced by one of agitation at the suggestion that he was running from anything. He gritted his teeth, his emotions playing across his face, but he couldn't seem to formulate a response. That fact perhaps frustrated him more than the comment that instigated it. Kai merely turned his head away and huffed. Tyson's fingers slipped away from around Kai's arm, though Kai had to admit he had completely forgotten they were still there, but he noticed their warmth leave him. He turned his head to watch the baseball cap-clad blader break out into a light jog through the grass, heading back to find the rest of their group, leaving their former leader behind. He stopped a little way ahead, though, and turned back to face Kai, the wind blowing through his midnight blue hair, a hand raising up to the cap on his head to hold it there. Kai felt something in his stomach twist and then flutter at the sight. The feeling made him more than a little uncomfortable.

“Come on, Kai! Don't just stand there!” Tyson called back, obviously planning to wait for his older friend there, leaving Kai with little alternative now. With a heavy sigh, shoving his hands in his pockets, the two-tone haired blader set off at a relatively slow pace after his opponent.

No, his friend.

~~++~~

Three years.

It had been over three years with little to no contact with the other members of the Bladebreakers, the G Revolutions. It wasn't like he had ever been particularly gifted at maintaining contact with just about anyone, but it gave him something to think about as he stood outside the Seven-Eleven near his university campus, having managed to blend back into the fabric of the mundane, everyday routine. Now, Kai Hiwatari was just a sophomore college student and not a Beyblade world champion. If anyone asked him, Kai would tell them that he stopped carrying Dranzer with him two years ago, but the truth was a different matter. He continued to train every day, on his own, and sometimes into the early hours of the morning. He told himself it was because he didn't want to be in poor condition should the opportunity to face a truly worthy opponent reared its head again.

Though, to Kai's mind, there was only one man that that could be, and just about everyone else would know it, too.

Adjusting the strap of the messenger bag on his shoulder, he went into the breast pocket of his well-worn jacket, taking out a half-empty packet of cigarettes and a Zippo lighter. Smoking wasn't something he had planned on taking up as a habit, after having been offered a cigarette at a party a year ago (yes, the mere fact that Kai Hiwatari, of all people, attended a social function that he was invited to, was a shock in and of itself), and he had intended on quitting many times, but his classmates at college tested his nerves and his patience on far too many occasions, and the cigarettes became a method of stress relief, to save his classmates from his wrath. He pulled out a cigarette and put it between his lips, shifting over to the small smoking area situated just outside the convenience store before lighting it, taking a long drag and exhaling slowly. If he was going to poison himself with nicotine and a variety of other cancer-causing chemicals, he was going to do it with some unusual consideration for others.

“Kai!” a pretty young woman with masses of soft, wavy brown hair came over to Kai, stepping tentatively on her four-inch heels, looking overdressed for college as far as the former Beyblader was concerned. She fluttered her eyelashes at him and put on her sweetest smile. “You'll be coming to the party at my place Saturday night, won't you? It won't be the same without you there!”

“I guess,” Kai shrugged, entirely disinterested in this girl or the nature of this gathering she was suggesting. The manner in which she attempted to arrest his attention caused an eyebrow to raise; she had made it sound like he was the life of the party, when most of the time he barely said two words together. The more he thought about it, it was probably down to the fact that the pair had been at a party together back in their Freshman year, where the class clown had spiked everyone's drinks and they had gotten a little drunk and ended up in bed together. Doubtless she wanted to try again, as she had been making every attempt possible to be alone with him again since then. If Kai were honest, though, he could recall very little of their drunken union, and he wanted to keep it that way.

She seemed satisfied with his response, though, and carried on about her way, running over to her friends as best she could and giggling away with them, occasionally glancing back at him, causing a groan to emerge from the young man. The attention he got from young women as a nineteen-year-old seemed to annoy him a lot more than it did when he was sixteen. It all felt utterly pointless, as none of the women he had slept with really captured his interest. Not that he didn't enjoy the act, but the partner was just never who he was really looking for.

His heart knew who he was looking for, but he was doing everything he could to try and escape fully approaching that conclusion. He'd done so well in running from it for the past three years that he wasn't ready for it to catch up with him just yet.

“I'm not admitting that you were right, Tyson,” Kai spoke softly as he exhaled another cloud of smoke, leaning back against the wall behind him, watching as people wandered to and fro before him, going about their day without thought. Some time passed before anything happened.

“Kai?” a familiar voice floated into his ears and an all-too-familiar feeling in his stomach seemed to reawaken, after years of lying dormant within him. His cigarette was almost burned out when he looked over to meet the deep brown eyes of the bluenette youth that he had been wondering about just a few minutes previously.

Nothing about him had changed; he was still wearing that godforsaken baseball cap, and he still wore the same style of charcoal gray jeans and a yellow shirt with a red jacket, but he seemed to wear them so much better now than he did back when he was fifteen, which made Kai blink rapidly in surprise. Everything fit him so well and accentuated all of the right places...

What?! Why am I thinking like this?!

“So it really is you!” Tyson smiled brightly as he looked his former captain over. The older youth had changed a lot outwardly, but he always seemed to every time they parted and reunited. Long gone were the face paint and the weighted scarves of their Beyblading days, replaced now by loose gray jeans and black boots, form-fitting shirts and well-worn jackets. Kai looked rather in-fashion, Tyson interpreted, but as far as he was concerned, Kai always managed to look good. “Gotten rid of the face paint, huh? Shame, Kai! Shame!” Kai felt his stomach tighten again as he regarded his old teammate in masked disbelief. How could he be right here, right now? Right when he was thinking about him? “Quiet as ever! You may have a different wrapper on, but you've still got the same hard center!” Tyson laughed. Kai's eyes widened slightly at the remark, his expression obviously betraying that he had been affronted by the remark. “Sorry, sorry! Still prickly, I almost forgot...!”

“What are you doing out here anyway?” Kai finally spoke, hastily putting out his cigarette, despite the fact that he was nearly certain Tyson had noticed it. His tone came across as a little more short and snippy than he would have liked for a reunion like this.

“Ah, I was visiting Kenny,” Tyson responded, gesturing over his right shoulder with his thumb. “He goes to the Tech college just a block down, so I often hit this store afterwards to grab a snack or whatever groceries I need for dinner. You at college here?” Kai nodded, gesturing over to his campus building, which was but fifty or sixty metres away. Tyson gaped in surprise before allowing his expression to melt into laughter. “I should have figured you'd get admitted to the best university in the country! That's you, Kai! Always showing off somehow!” Kai prickled a little at his latest remark, which Tyson picked up on fairly quickly and he raised his hands in apology.

“I figured you wouldn't have gone to college...” Kai spoke eventually, after a companionable silence.

“Nah, you know it's not my kind of scene!” the bluenette smiled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “I help my gramps with the dojo these days. You know, giving Kendo lessons, keeping the place clean and all that...” Kai couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the thought of Tyson keeping anything clean, and his younger friend laughed at his reaction. “Yeah, yeah, I clean now, Kai! Hard to believe as it is! Did you know Max and Ray are both in college here?” The older one merely shrugged, his disinterest clear, but the younger continued irregardless. “Both at the same college, actually. Not studying the same stuff, of course, but they have an apartment together close to their campus, so I go visit there a lot. You should come along too, Kai! We were gonna do something this Saturday, you should come! It'll be all of us together again! You, me, Chief, Hilary, Max, Ray, even Daichi!”

“Do I have a choice?” Kai queried, doing his best to sound exasperated by the idea to mask the growing lightness in his chest at the thought of getting to spend some more time with this one particular person.

“Of course not!” Tyson laughed, delving through his pockets in search of a piece of paper and a pen, returning with both and scrawling something onto the paper, handing it to Kai. “That's Ray and Max's address. We're gonna meet there at about 8:30 Saturday night. Bring food and drink with you, if you want. I'm bringing movies and video games! Or you can just bring yourself! That'd make us happy!” The fluttering in Kai's chest continued.

“Fine,” the pale young man huffed in response, folding the piece of paper into his back pocket, adjusting his bag again before starting to walk away.

“See you on Saturday, Kai!” Tyson called after him. “Don't be late!” Kai lifted his eyes to the heavens at that remark. As if he had ever been late for anything!

As he made his way back onto campus and to the school parking lot, Kai's mind began to drift back over the conversation he had just had with Tyson, and what had resulted from it. The reunion hadn't been as overly dramatic as Kai had feared it could become; Tyson was still Tyson and Kai was still Kai, on the inside. The fluttering in his chest returned as he replayed every smile and every laugh the younger former Beyblader had given him, causing a faint smile to tug at the corners of his lips. Still, after all these years, Tyson's presence had the same effect on him. What had started as just the intense need for their rivalry, to always try to overcome him, had slowly and discreetly transformed into something much more personal and much less driven by Beyblading. The tiny smile quickly melted from his features as the reality of the situation came into sharp relief; he was going to see Tyson again. Yes, he would see the others, but it was Tyson from whom he had been trying to escape for all of these years. The feelings he had been running away from were about to catch up with him, and it would soon become a matter of whether he had the strength of will to keep them at bay and prevent himself from causing a humiliating situation to unfold.

As he took out his car keys, pressed the Alarm button on the fob and put his key into the driver's door, another thought crossed the mind of the young holder of Dranzer.

Shit, I'm going to have to try and remember that girl's name now, so when she approaches me about why I didn't show on Monday, I'll know what to call her.
- 1
- 2
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Running